Seeder.



C. W. STARK.

SEEDBR.

APPLICATION rum) Jun: 15, 1909.

9 L R mm W L Q mm a m ,M m w 9 w;

G. W. STARK.

SEEDER.

APPLYIOATION FILED JUNE 15, 1909.

Patent ed Dec. 7, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 3,

enrich.

CHARLES W. STARK, 0F MOUNTAIN LAKE, MINNESOTA.

SEEDER.

Original application filed October 20, 1908, Serial No. 458,660. Dividedand this application filed June 15,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. *7, 1969.

1909. Serial No. 502,290.

To all whom "it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES WV. STARK, a citizen of the United States,residing at Mountain Lake, in the county of Cottonwood and State ofMinnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seeders;and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart towhich it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to new and useful ll'IIPI'OVGIIlGlltS in seedersand more particularly to that class adapted to be employed for sowinggrain, such as wheat, oats, and the like and my object. is to providemeans for attaching a seeder to that form of grass grubber andcultivator the application for which was patented by me August 10, 1909,said patent being numbered 930,996, and is the subject matter strickenfrom said case.

A further object is to provide means for feeding the seed into the downspouts or discharging nozzles of the seeder and a further object is toprovide means for spreading the seed as said seed leaves the spout and astill further object is to provide means for operating the feedingmechanism of the seeder.

Other objects and advantages will be hereinafter referred to and moreparticularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this application, Figure 1is a top plan view of the cultivating device, showing the seed sowingmechanism attached thereto. Fig; 2 is a detail sectional view as seen online 2-2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a rear elevation partly in section of oneend of the cultivator and seeding attachment. Fig. 4L is a verticaltransverse sectional view as seen on line 4- 1, Fig. 6. Fig. 5 is asimilar view showing the feed graduating device or follower block insection. Fig. 6 is a sectional View as seen on line 6-6, Fig. 1, and,Fig. 7 is an elevation of a clutch mechanism employed in connection withthe seeding attachment.

Referring to the drawings in which similar reference numerals designatecorresponding parts throughout the several views, 1 indicates the frameof that form of cultivator shown and described in my former applicationwhich frame is preferably oblong and said frame is mounted on a tubularshaft 2, said shaft extending the full length of the frame and providinga hearing for the axle 3, the ends of the axle extending beyond the endsof the shaft and having mounted thereon supporting wheels4l.

Extending rearwardly from the tubular shaft 2, is a plurality ofcultivating beams 5, to which are attached any suitable form ofcultivating shovel and these beams are raised and lowered through themedium of a lever 6, said lever being mounted on a shaft 7, which shaftis in turn rotatably mounted on the frame 1 and by providing a latch 8011 the lever 6, which is adapted to cooperate with a rack 9 fixed tothe shaft 7, the swinging of said lever forwardly or rearwardly willelevate or depress the beams 5 through the means of an arm 10 fixed tothe rack 9 and a lift bar 11 at the opposite end of said arm 10, saidlift bar being fixed in any suitable manner to the beams. The beams maybe held in various suspended positions by providing an auxiliary latch12 which cooperates with a rack 13 stationed on the frame 1 and byproviding suitable means for operating said latches, the beams may beraised or lowered as desired and the depth to which the cultivatingattachments on the beams may enter the soil, may be also regulatedthrough the medium of the rack 13 and auxiliary latch cooperatingtherewith. The shaft 7 may be also rotated to elevate the beams by meansof a foot le ver 14, but as the aforesaid parts form no part of mypresent invention, it is not deemed necessary to further describe thesame.

The seeding device is attached to the forward portion of the frame 1 andcomprises a hopper 15, which extends the full length of the frame 1,said hopper being provided with a number of openings 16, through whichthe seed may pass into the down spouts 17, which spouts are hingedly secured to the housing 18 surrounding and depending from the openings 16.The spouts are normally held in their Vertical position by means ofspring tongues 19, said tongues being fixed at one end to the spouts 17,while the angular extensions 20 at the opposite ends of the tongues areadapted to engage shoulders 21 on the housings 18, the tension of saidtongues being such as to normally hold the extensions in engagement withthe shoulder and maintain the spouts in a vertical position.

The spouts 17 are preferably made in two sections and are held togetherin any preferred manner as by means of bolts 22, the lower end of therear section of the spout being substantially fan shaped and having itscentral portion 23 curved upwardly, while the lower end of the forwardsection of the spout is curved outwardly to form a lip 24:, the objectin. so arranging the discharging ends of the spouts being to cause theseed to scatter or be thrown a distance from each side of the spout aswell as immediately below the same. The u wardly curved central portion23 provides laterally inclined surfaces at the ct ges of the spouts,which will cause a portion of the seed when engaging the lower endportion of the spout, to more laterally from the center thereof, themomentum carrying the seed a distance to each side of the path of thespout, while the lip 2- lwill prevent the seed from rebounding orleaving the end of the spout directly in the path of the spout.

A shaft 25 is extended longitudinally of the hopper 15 and through thehousings or cups 18, said shaft having fixed thereon force feed wheels26, there being one of said wheels for each housing, the object of saidwheels being to agitate the seed and force the same from the hopper intothe spouts. The length of said wheels is such as to extend from end toend of the housings and, if it be desired to deliver or feed certainclass of seed in less quantities than others, the shaft 25 is movedlongitudinally, which 'will allow of moving the feed wheels partiallyout of their housings, and controlling or closing more or less the seedopenings by certain means as presently disclosed, whereby a. less amountof seed will be deposited in the spouts. When this result isaccomplished, it becomes necessary to choke or more or less close theopenings 16, which result is obtained by means of follow blocks 27,which blocks are likewise carried by the shaft 25, but instead of fixingthe blocks to the shaft, said shaft is arranged to rotate in the blocksand they are caused to travel longitudinally with the force feed wheelsby abutting one end of the blocks against the feed wheels and placingcollars 28 on the shaft 25 at the opposite ends of the blocks. In thismanner, it will be readily seen that as the shaft is movedlongitudinally to lessen the feeding capacity of the wheels, the followblocks will be moved into the housing and paitially close the openingsin the hopper, thereby retarding the flow of the seed from the hopperinto the housing. The lower portions of the blocks 27 are curved and fitsnugly in the curved bottoms 29 of the housings 18, the curvature of theface of the blocks and bottoms being such as to prevent the blocks fromturning in the housing, thereby retaining the blocks at all times inposition to move into or out of the hous- 1ngs.

The shaft 25 is positively driven by placing a sprocket 30 on one end ofthe shaft 25, said sprocket being provided with a sleeve 31, whichsleeve is held in any suitable manner against longitudinal movement, butis left free to rotate with the shaft and the shaft is likewiselongitudinally movable through the sleeve, whereby the shaft may beoperated to position the feeding wheels and follow blocks withoutdisturbing the position of said sprocket. A similar sprocket 32 isloosely mounted on the axle 3 and a chain 32 connects said sprockets,the sprocket 32 being provided on its inner face with a clutch 33, whichclutch cooperates with a similar clutch face 3% fixed to the axle 3, theclutch face 33 being held in engagement with the clutch face 34: bymeans of a spring 35 and as the axle is positively driven by the wheels1, it will be readily seen that so long as the clutch faces areinterlocked with each other, the seeding at tachment will be likewiseoperated. In order to disconnect the clutch faces and thereby stop theoperation of the seeder, a link 9 member 36 is positioned around theaxle 3 and between collars 37 and 33 on the sprocket 32 and clutch 34:,respectively, said link being oblong and provided with an outwardlycurved lip 39, at its lower end, the remaining portion of the link beingsuch as to permit the clutch faces to engage with each other when thelink is in its lowered position, while the lip is so arranged that whenthe link is elevated, the clutch 33 will be moved out of engagement withthe clutch 34;, thereby permitting the sprocket 32 to remain stationary.

Itis the object of the invention to stop operation of the seedersimultaneously with raising the cultivating beams and to this end, theupper end of the link 36 is provided with a stem 40, the upper end ofthe stem being pivotally secured to an arm 41, which arm is in turnfixed to the end of the shaft 7 and it will be readily seen that whenthe shaft 7 is rotated to raise and lower the beams 55, the link will becorrespondingly raised and lowered and the clutch mechanism operated. a

It will thus be seen that I have provided a very cheap and economicalform of seed ing device which may be readly attached to various classesof cultivators and more particularly to that class claimed by me in theapplication before mentioned and it will further be seen that I haveprovided means for effectually stopping the seeder in the operation ofparts to disengage the cultivating attachments from the earths surface.It

will likewise be seen that by providing the force feeds and followblocks, the amount of seed fed from the hopper may be readily regulatedfurther, by hinging the spouts to the housing as shown and providingspring tongues for normally retaining the same in a vertical position,should the spouts come in contact with a solid object, the springs willyield sufficiently to be disengaged from the shoulders, whereupon thespouts will swing rearwardly and prevent breakage of the spouts. It willfurther be seen that by providing the fan structure at the lower ends ofthe spouts, the seed will be evenly distributed over the earths surface.

What I claim is:

1. In a combined cultivator and seeding device, the combination with aframe, an axle on said frame, beams carried by the axle and means toraise and lower said beams; of a hopper carried by the frame, housingsbelow said hopper, a shaft extending longitudinally of the hopper andthrough the housings, feeding devices fixed on said shaft follow-blocksarranged upon, and independent of, said shaft, a sprocket on said shaft,a similar sprocket on said axle, a chain extending around saidsprockets, the sprocket on theaxle having a clutch face, a similarclutch face on the axle and means adapted to operate simultaneously withthe elevation of said beams to separate said clutch faces and stop theoperation of the seeding attachment and means arranged upon said shaftadapted, with said feeding devices, to effect the longitudinal movementof said follow-blocks with the like movement of said shaft and feedingdevices.

2. In a combined cultivating and seeding device, the combination with aframe, an axle carried by said frame, cultivating devices attached tosaid axle and means to raise and lower the cultivating devices; of aseed hopper carried by said frame and forwardly of said cultivatingattachments, feeding devices below said hopper, means connected with theaxle to drive said feeding devices, additional means cooperating withthe cultivating attachment, elevating devices to disconnect the feeddriving mechanism and stop the operation of the seeder, spouts hingedlysecured below said hopper spring tongues applied to said spouts, andshoulders below said hopper adapted to be engaged by said spring tonguesto normally hold said spouts in a vertical position.

3. In a seeding device, the combination with a hopper having openingstherein; of housings having shoulders thereon, spouts hingedly securedto said housings and spring tongues on said spouts adapted to engagesaid shoulders and normally retain the spouts in vertical position.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES WV. STARK. l/Vitnesses:

A1312. JANZEN, NETTIE E. STARK.

